The Peoples Democratic Party’s leadership and presidential candidate for the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, are considering meeting with the presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso, to discuss how to defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Both Obi, the former governor of Anambra State and Atiku’s running mate in the 2019 presidential election, and Kwankwaso, the former governor of Kano State, were PDP members before defecting to their respective parties to pursue their presidential dreams.
According to Newsmen, the PDP was pondering ways to recruit their assistance and put together a powerful squad to beat the APC’s nominee, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
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Meanwhile, in the APC, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, both of whom are notable northern Christians, are being considered as Tinubu’s running mate.
While the party is reportedly contemplating Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, who is a strong northerner but a Muslim, to prevent a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
However, among the PDP, it is thought that Obi and Kwankwaso’s defections will have an impact on the party’s chances in the presidential election on February 25, 2023.
There are fears that Obi’s departure will further splinter the PDP’s support in the South, while Kwankwaso’s departure may have a similar impact in the North, particularly in Kano State, which has bloc votes.
If this happens, the party fears that it would benefit the APC, which currently possesses more states in the north.
Obi, who had secured the PDP’s N40 million presidential forms before defecting, was alleged to have deserted the party due to the unfriendliness of one of the party’s South-South governors.
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Before defecting, Kwankwaso, a former Minister of Defense, was the party’s most powerful leader in Kano State.
A former National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, told one of our correspondents in an interview that the result of the 2019 presidential election had shown that the PDP needed to get all the votes it could from all the states, especially northern states with higher numbers of voters.
He said, “In Kano State, President (Muhammadu) Buhari won in all the 44 local government areas with 1.4 million votes, while Atiku got 391,593 votes. Though the incumbent governor of the state, Abdullahi Ganduje, won the governorship election on the platform of the APC in 2019, it was a tight race between his party and the PDP. So, the PDP has prospects in the state, which is why it has to do what is necessary to get the maximum possible from the state.
“The 2019 governorship election results, which were a combination of the March 9 election and the March 23 rerun, showed the APC polled 1,033,695 votes, while the PDP scored 1,024,713 votes. With the above analysis, you will see that the PDP will need the cooperation of the two gentlemen to remain popular and win these states.”
However, Secondus refused to comment on what the party and Atiku planned to do to woo the two men, whom he described as “valuable persons” to the party.
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The Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Senator Walid Jibrin, also said there were possibilities that votes from the South-East could be split into three with Obi’s candidacy.
“We may have a situation whereby Obi will have some votes from there (South-East), then our party and the APC will get votes as well. We need to work against that. The South-East is our zone and we know the people and the voters there will not abandon us,” he stated.
This, according to findings, is the reason the PDP and Atiku are considering speaking with Obi and Kwankwaso to enlist their support.
A source privy to the planned discussions said, “We will talk to them. The battle ahead is not personal. We need to win the election and rescue the country from the bad governance of the ruling party. Thank God that we have about nine months ahead of us before the conduct of the general elections.
“We have enough time to engage people and solidify whatever agreement we want to propose. We should not allow this opportunity to slip from our hands.”
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When asked to confirm if moves were being made to engage Obi and Kwankwaso in talks, a media consultant to Atiku, Paul Ibe, said in an interview with one of our correspondents on Friday that he could not say if such moves were being made, but that since his emergence, the candidate had been consulting stakeholders.
He added, “After he won the primary, he met with other aspirants, PDP governors, former ministers and other stakeholders. In this race, especially when you are contesting against a ruling party, everyone matters. These are extraordinary times and they require extraordinary measures.
“So, there will be alliances and the objective is to kick out the APC that has done nothing than to make Nigerians suffer, promote division and entrench a state of insecurity. But I can’t say if the party is reaching out to them (Obi and Kwankwaso).”
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